CHAPTER 2: The Heroes Arrive

Far away from the hidden isle, in the middle of the Mossflower woods, Naruto woke up to the sounds of strange songbirds and sat up, yawning wide with his long muzzle. Brushing off his large orange jacket and pants, he stood up on his paws and went over to the small river nearby and started to wash his face when he really woke up and saw his appearance in the water. "What the...? Whiskers? I'm furry?! I'm a fox, believe it!" He whips his head around and not only is he a fox, he's a small orange Kyubi, a nine-tailed fox! He rubbed his fur up and down for a moment, exploring this new body and making sure there were no big bodily changes. He patted himself down, sighing as he found everything still in place. "This is really weird. At least I got my clothes still and all my equipment, but this is really strange. Hey, where's Sakura?" He started walking through the bushes, keeping a lookout for any trouble.

The said girl was waking up with something ticking her nose, but when she woke up, it was her whiskers! Believing that some creature was lying next to her, she quickly and quietly got up and made for the water but the Nine-tailed Fox stepped out from the bushes in front of her! She hopped back into the bushes, reaching for a throwing star at her weapons pack, when she noticed what clothes it was wearing. "Naruto? Is that you?"

Naruto turned about, looking for the voice. "Sakura? Where are you?" The genin finally found her, after she stood up. "Hey Sakura! Um, why are you a rabbit?"

The former human girl looked down and saw that, even though she was still dressed in her clothes, a short pink dress, slit at the waist, and black shorts, she was indeed a cream colored hare. Her head was different for she had a general pink colored fur under her blue headband and around her head, but she guessed it was from her original hair being pink. She gasped and started to check herself out too, making sure it was her and she wasn't in a dream. "I'm..I'm a rabbit!? What in the world happened to us? Where are we?"

Naruto's smiling face faded slightly as the realization hit him. "Err, I don't know. I don't exactly remember anything that lead us here except some big tough looking mouse in armor leading me down a hole." By Sakura's face, the same happened to her. "Maybe we could find a local and find out that way. Maybe a nearby city where we could get some chow and info. Let's go." He started to walk toward the trees, but Sakura grabbed his arm.

"Naruto, do you think in these bodies, we can still use our chakra? We might have some trouble fighting if we can't use our justu." Naruto nodded and made a few signs with his paws. "Shadow Clone Justu!" In a puff of smoke, there was now three nine tailed foxes in front of Sakura that quickly shifted back to one. "Looks like we can! That's great, believe it!" Smiling back at her friend, the hare followed her friend into the trees, leaping into the branches and traveling across the woodland trees like two squirrels.

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In another part of the woods, Rock Lee awoke and looked up to see large red walls in-between the trees in the distance. Wiping off the dust on his green clothes, he stood up and stared through the trees, wondering where and how he got there. He was a tall, wiry hare with showing muscles and weights on his long legs, his belt having a Leaf Village leaf on it too. His face had a stern look, added by the large bushy eyebrows over his large eyes. His arms and leg under his leg weights were wrapped up as if they were injured. The thought of his friends brought him back to reality as he noticed one body near him. His companion, a tom cat wearing a large white coat, was quite still but the even breathing of his sleep reassured the hare, so he sat went to a tree and started striking it with his paws, practicing his unarmed combat and to think clearer. He kept it up until a large pebble dropped on his head, knocking him down to the ground and his eyes uncrossed and looked up at the person above him. A red squirrel in a simple smock held another in a sling as he twirled it threateningly while looking down at the rising hare, his bushytail twitching with a life of it's own. "What do you think you're doing, knocking against someone's home and waking his family up with that pounding? Have you no decency?"

The odd animal smiled and bowed. "My apologies. I had no idea it was you're home, sir. I shall be careful what tree I hit next time, but I was waiting for my friend to awaken."

"Hmph. Fine, but be quiet and be on your way. I don't want to waste anymore stones on your thick heads. Oh and he's waking up too." Disappearing into the trees, the squirrel left the smiling hare to his awakening companion. The tall feline stood up and cracked his neck, looking to the hare with creamy white eyes and a bewildered look. "Is that you, Lee?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure why I'm a hare and you're a cat, but it seems things have changed a little since we started off this morning, Neji."

The brown cat smirked at the remark and adjusted the coat covering his torso to his black tail, that twitched slightly. "Well, we'd better find out where the hell we're at and why we're here." He took a step toward Lee, but stopped as something passed across his mind. "Where's Hinata, Gaara, and the Refugee? Shouldn't they have gone with us?"

"Sssss, I'm here." Both of them turned around and jumped as the bushes rustled and parted for a giant white adder who slithered up to the pair and fixed them with it's yellow eyes. "Ssss, it s-s-s-seems that we've been altered s-s-significantly. The others-s-s weren't near me when I awoke." The other two nodded then Neji motioned toward the large red building ahead. "That looks like a good place to go to and ask for directions. Let's go. Come on, Renagade."

"It's Rai'guy, Hyuuga. Get it right."

The two walkers started toward the building but halted when they saw their companion not following. The snake had closed his eyes and was swaying his head back and forth, eyes closed as his swaying picked up speed. They were about to call to him when they heard sickening crunches and squishing sounds coming from inside the creature then the entire body relaxed, flopping against the grass. For a moment nothing happened, then a sword shot out the middle of the snakes body, followed by another creating a large hole in the flesh of the creature, but no blood came forth from the wound.

The only thing that came out was a large canine, a pale white jackal with purple stripes along his body. The jackal wore a long white shirt and red jacket tucked into a sash belt with long silken pants that ballooned over his leather boots. From the belt hung two long katanas, in ornate scabbards depicting dragons surrounded with flames, six bottles holding a dark liquid inside, and several pouches, while a large silver blade hung on his back. The long ears were standing up in the midst of long black fur that trailed down in braids, covering part of his face and one of the yellow eyes, with one thin red line down the pupil in each. Unlike the other two's head-protectors, his depicted a musical note with a cut in the middle. "What? Like I was going to stay a snake the whole time I'm here?" Stepping out of the corpse, Rai'guy kicked it into the bushes and joined his companions as they walked through the shrubbery.